Sunday, December 21, 2008

Santa'a Helpers

It seems that there are some Christmas elves hard at work tonight. Since we are celebrating Christmas tomorrow as a family, before heading down to Texas, we had quite a lot to accomplish today. Let me ammend that. Loren had quite a lot to accomplish today.

He took on the challenging task of making the doll bunk bed that Hope asked for this year for Christmas...the ONLY thing she asked for...besides the money for the kids in Africa (see my ealier post about this). The bed is going to be absolutely adorable, but since the plans didn't come in the mail until Tuesday, it has made things a little more down to the wire than we had hoped.

This brings me to the really cool part of the story. We have great friends. We really do. And so it shouldn't have suprised me at all to see some of the guys, the ones Loren has long-standing plans with after small group on Sunday nights, show up at our house while we were putting the kids to bed and offer their help. They have been in the garage now for a couple of hours...sanding, sawing, and laughing...a lot. I can not even begin to tell you what a precious gift this is to me. Not just that they are helping, but that they came. I am so glad that Loren has these kinds of friends. They serve each other, they challenge each other, they have way too much fun together, and they have a genuine affection for one another that runs deep. It does a man good to have friends like that.

So, thanks guys...you know who you are. Thanks for helping with the doll bed. Hope's eyes are gonna light up tomorrow. Mostly, thanks for being the kind of friends who show up for stuff like this. You are a rare breed...in a good way...but also in a weird way. I'm not gonna lie...you all can be kind of weird sometimes.

p.s. pictures of the bed are forthcoming...it really is soooo cute!

*edit*

For all of you anxiously awaiting pictures of the bunk bed for Hope's dollies. Here they are. I know you have been holding your breath. I love how it turned out, though. Kudos to Loren...er...Santa.